Tonight Show Musician John B. Williams, 85, in Hospice Care

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson musician John B. Williams, 85, is now in hospice care after undergoing surgery following a fall.

On Wednesday, June 3, Williams’ wife, Jessica, told TMZ that her husband recently fell and needed brain surgery due to his injuries. Williams had dementia before the fall, she noted, but the accident “greatly accelerated its progression,” per TMZ.

Currently, Williams cannot talk or walk, and his health is declining, Jessica revealed. One of his last conversations was with his daughter.

Williams was the house bassist for The Tonight Show for seven years — four years in New York City and three years in Los Angeles, according to an online bio. He also shared bass duties with Robert Cranshaw on Sesame Street. After that, he was a member of the house band, The Posse, on The Arsenio Hall Show from 1989 to 1993.

Additionally, Williams worked with big names in jazz, such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Hugh Masakela, and Roy Ayers. He also released several albums.

In 2014, Williams opened up about his 2011 album Notes on Life, which he recorded with his wife.

“It was comprised of music and monologues I call ‘jazz theater,’” he explained during an interview with For Bass Players Only. “The idea came about during the years I spent doing the very popular Arsenio Hall Show, as a member of the Posse studio band and also doing tongue-in-cheek poetry, which became a regular part of the show titled, ‘The John B. Williams Poetry Moment.’”

More recently — in 2022 — a 1991 clip of Will Smith joking about Williams’s bald head went viral after Smith’s infamous Chris Rock slap at the Oscars.

That time in 1991 when Will Smith made fun of a bald man on the Arsenio Hall Show and said “awe these are jokes man c’mon”.#WillAndChris #WillSmithAssault #ChrisRock #WillSmith pic.twitter.com/LMUyjwj0d8

— ThePopPunkDad (@ThePopPunkDad) March 28, 2022

“I didn’t take it seriously,” Williams admitted to Rolling Stone of the ’90s incident. “He was a comedian. He was the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He was a rapper. I took it as a joke. I laughed it off.”

Williams’ most recent album, African Queen (A Tribute To Horace Silver), was released in 2014.